City & Tourism
Six traditional Chinese colors build a travel catalog for Hongze, making its intangible heritage, ancient weir and lake scenery each easy to remember.
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01 / Background
Hongze District's culture and tourism bureau wanted a landscape promo under one minute. The material spanned the fish drum, the ancient weir, the metasequoias and the lake, and the challenge was making sure viewers still remembered these places after the film ended.
We went with a “Colors of Hongze” concept, organizing the fish drum, the ancient weir, the metasequoias and the lake scenery into six color chapters. The pacing is slow, every location is labeled, and each shot was checked against local reference footage. The colors had to be striking, but they also had to tell viewers which part of Hongze they were looking at.
02 / Creative Highlights
The opening splits the frame vertically into six equal strips, showing all six colors at once, then unfolds chapter by chapter: Crimson Glow, Gilded Gold, Emerald Mist, Indigo Lake, Violet Haze and Crescent White. Calligraphic color names sit at the top and location captions at the bottom, so the image stays clean and viewers always know where to read.
The fish-shaped drum is unique to the Hongze Lake fish drum tradition. The film places a dancer in red, the fish drum and the setting sun in one composition with a clear silhouette, her sleeves fluttering to show her lightness, so the heritage symbol catches the eye the moment it appears.
The blue chapter shows the Hongze Lake shoreline, and the sails on the five-sail boat were checked one by one. The landscapes and color tones follow local reference footage, and place names such as Sanhe Sluice, Hongze Lake and the Wetland Flower Sea are labeled, so however poetic the image, viewers know where they are.
Slower pacing, wider scenes. A small boat glides through a metasequoia waterway, the sunset lights up the old town's canal lanes, and the five-sail boat drifts across a violet lake; reflections and slow movement link the chapters, letting viewers linger a little longer in each color.
03 / Scene Breakdown
The frame splits into six vertical strips that light up in red, yellow, blue, green, white and purple, with the calligraphic title “Colors of Hongze” across the middle. Then comes the first chapter, Crimson Glow: a night view of Fantawild Oriental Dawn and the fish drum dancer in red.
Six strips appear from left to right, each one the color of a later chapter. A line of small text under the title reads: a color-coded visual epic of the canal.
An overhead view of Fantawild Oriental Dawn: red and yellow light strips wrap the buildings as red fireworks burst in the night sky. “Crimson Glow” appears in the top right, with the place name at the bottom.
A woman in red raises a fish-shaped drum, her sleeves caught by the wind, with the setting sun and silhouettes of traditional buildings behind her. The fish eye and tail on the drum are instantly recognizable, the signature of the Hongze Lake fish drum.
All three shots are in the Ancient Weir Scenic Area: first an aerial view of the gardens on golden water, then down into a misty canal lane, and finally a flight over an old street lined with lanterns along the river.
The sun sits on the horizon, turning the whole water surface gold, with the silhouettes of the gardens and trees reflected below. The calligraphy “Gilded Gold” sits in the top left.
A flagstone path runs along the riverbank, red lanterns hang on one side, and a small boat slowly rows away into the light mist.
An overhead view of gray-tiled roofs on both banks, a small boat moored on the golden river, red lanterns strung along the street and visitors strolling by the water.
The green chapter uses just two shots, both of the metasequoia forest: one for the light, one for the boat.
Morning mist hugs the water as sunbeams fall through gaps in the metasequoias, and the lake mirrors the trees and shafts of light perfectly.
Two rows of metasequoias line either side of the frame, a rower in a bamboo hat paddles down the middle, and mist rises from the water, drawing the eye deep along the channel.
The blue chapter belongs to Hongze Lake itself: first Sanhe Sluice stretching across the lake, then a small island covered with fish ponds. Both are drawn from local reality, so viewers can recognize Hongze Lake.
In an aerial shot, the long sluice dam runs diagonally from the shore into the middle of the lake. The water is pale blue, with the green far shore in the distance.
Looking down on a small island reaching into the lake, its grid of fish ponds glows blue-green. The caption reads simply “Hongze Lake.”
The sky turns to a violet dusk: first the wetland flower sea filling the foreground, then Hongze's five-sail boat gliding slowly across the lake.
A sea of purple flowers fills the lower half of the frame as the sun sets at the far edge of the lake, the sky fading from orange to purple. The caption reads “Hongze Lake Wetland Park Flower Sea.”
A red-sailed wooden boat sits in the middle of a pinkish-purple lake, its sails staggered high and low. It is a signature boat type of the Hongze canal, and only this one large boat stays in the frame.
The last chapter turns cool: Shuifu City after snowfall, from an aerial view down to a close-up of the eaves. The ending returns to the lake at sunset, and the title appears once more.
An aerial view of Shuifu City after snowfall: the roofs are covered in white, pavilions stand beside the waterway, and the river is deep green.
The camera moves close to the eaves, thick snow weighing on the upturned corners, while the white walls and gray tiles behind blur together; the chapter is left with only white and gray.
The setting sun lights the lake and a long bridge as “Colors of Hongze” appears again, with two lines beneath: A thousand years of color, a lake that gives rise to all things; what these waters have witnessed is more than the past.
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
In the order of the final film, one color per chapter. For each shot we first describe what it shows, then the final frame used in the film.
Shot 1.1
Six vertical strips each stand for one chapter's color, with the title in the middle; all six are taken from shots in the film.
Shot 2.1
An overhead night shot with red and yellow light strips and red fireworks to lift the mood right from the start.
Shot 2.2
A woman in red holds a fish-shaped drum before the setting sun. The fish drum is the signature of the Hongze Lake fish drum tradition and is recognizable at a glance.
Shot 3.1
An aerial view at sunset of gardens surrounded by water, the whole surface glowing gold; the gardens follow the real Ancient Weir Scenic Area.
Shot 3.2
An eye-level view of the flagstone path and river, with red lanterns, a small boat and light mist, bringing the camera down from the sky to the ground.
Shot 3.3
An overhead view of the lantern-lined riverside street and a stone arch bridge to close the chapter.
Shot 4.1
The metasequoia forest in morning mist, with shafts of light through the canopy falling on mirror-like water.
Shot 4.2
A symmetrical composition: a small boat paddles forward between two rows of metasequoias in the Hongze Lake Metasequoia Forest.
Shot 5.1
An aerial shot of Sanhe Sluice across the lake. The direction of the dam and the shoreline follow the real site, and the overall Indigo Lake tone lets viewers recognize Hongze Lake.
Shot 5.2
Looking down on an island in the lake covered with fish ponds, each glowing blue-green.
Shot 6.1
A sea of purple flowers fills the foreground and stretches to the horizon as the sun sets at the far edge of the lake.
Shot 6.2
The five-sail boat typical of the Hongze canal. Its sails were checked one by one, and only this one large boat stays in the frame.
Shot 7.1
The final chapter, Crescent White: an aerial view of Shuifu City after snowfall, with its pavilions and waterways in frame.
Shot 7.2
Cutting from the aerial view to a close-up of the eaves, the cool palette keeps only white and gray.
Shot 8.1
The lake and long bridge at sunset form the closing backdrop, where the title “Colors of Hongze” appears one last time.
05 / Results
Finalized on June 19, 2025. We delivered a 59-second landscape tourism promo and a cover image, released on Hongze Culture & Tourism's official accounts and Kuaishou.
3M+ views across platforms; the Kuaishou post received 185K likes, 6,008 saves and 5,767 shares.
Case Study
How much of Hongze can fit into one minute?
The fish drum, the ancient weir, the metasequoias, Sanhe Sluice, the five-sail boat, Shuifu City in the snow: stack them one after another and all viewers remember is “nice scenery.”
So we took a different approach: we gave each place a traditional Chinese color and let the colors serve as the catalog.
This is the promo short Colors of Hongze, which we made together with Kuaishou Kling AI for the Culture & Tourism Bureau of Hongze District, Huai'an.
01
The client's brief was simple: landscape preferred, 15 to 30 seconds, no longer than one minute, promoting Hongze District.
The hard part was how much there was to show. For intangible heritage there was the fish drum; for scenic spots, the Ancient Weir and Shuifu City; on the lake, Sanhe Sluice and the five-sail boat; plus the metasequoia forest and the wetland flower sea.
We settled on the “Colors of Hongze” concept: Crimson Glow, Gilded Gold, Emerald Mist, Indigo Lake, Violet Haze and Crescent White: six colors in six chapters, with only one or two sights in each.
The opening splits the frame into six vertical strips, showing all six colors at once. Before the film proper even begins, viewers already have a catalog.
Six strips light up in turn, each matching a chapter that follows.
02
During the sample stage we tried many ways of depicting the fish drum dance, and the more we tried, the clearer one thing became: the style could change, but the fish-shaped drum had to stay.
The Hongze Lake fish drum is shaped like a fish, something no other place has. As long as this drum appears clearly in the frame, viewers know it belongs to Hongze.
So this shot in the film is simple: a woman in red holds up the fish drum in front of the setting sun and traditional buildings, her sleeves caught by the wind. One shot with real weight does more than dozens of seconds of unrelated footage.
The fish drum's outline is clear, and the red costume and sunset both belong to the Crimson Glow chapter.
03
After the first cut, the client gave specific notes: add Hongze's five-sail boat; replace the dam in the blue chapter with a scene that clearly reads as Hongze Lake; label the locations.
We rebuilt the blue chapter from local aerial footage: the line of Sanhe Sluice across the lake and the far shoreline follow the real site, then everything was graded to a consistent blue.
The five-sail boat is a signature boat type of the Hongze canal. The first cut showed two boats, one large and one small; we checked the sails one by one and kept only the large boat, letting it drift slowly across the violet lake.
We tightened the other chapters the same way. In the first cut of the green chapter, the waterway was lined with bamboo; we replaced it with metasequoias from the Hongze Lake Metasequoia Forest. The yellow chapter originally opened on a fisherman casting a net on the lake; the final version uses the real gardens of the Ancient Weir Scenic Area, with the sunset turning the whole water surface gold.
Every shot carries a place-name caption at the bottom: Hongze Lake Ancient Weir Scenic Area, Hongze Lake Metasequoia Forest, Hongze Lake Sanhe Sluice, Wetland Park Flower Sea, Hongze Shuifu City. However impressionistic the image, viewers know where they are.
04
The six chapters had to be clearly distinct, and every shot had to sit within its own chapter's palette.
The island covered with fish ponds is a case in point: it was tried in gold and in red before landing in the blue chapter, its ponds glowing in a grid of blue-green.
Some local footage had color casts and some was oversaturated. We first locked the composition and terrain to the real site, then graded each chapter consistently, so when the six chapters sit side by side, each one is instantly distinct.
05
The calligraphic color names sit in the upper corner and the location captions at the bottom, in the same positions throughout. Viewers never have to hunt for text, and their eyes can stay on the image.
During revisions the client wanted a slower pace. We cut each chapter down to two or three shots and leaned on water reflections and slow push-ins: a small boat gliding through the metasequoia waterway, the five-sail boat drifting slowly across the violet lake.
Late in production we added a Crescent White chapter, using Shuifu City after snowfall to close on cool tones. The ending returns to the lake at sunset and the title appears once more, bookending the six-color catalog from the opening.
Cutting from the aerial view to a close-up of the eaves, the whole chapter is left with only white and gray.
06
Colors of Hongze took about a month from samples to final: sample work began on May 17, the samples were approved and full production started on May 21, and the film was finalized on June 19.
The film was released on Hongze Culture & Tourism's official accounts and Kuaishou, with 3M+ views across platforms; the Kuaishou post got 185K likes, 6,008 saves and 5,767 shares.
For a tourism film, AI lets us fit a snowy ancient town, a purple flower sea and light through metasequoias into the same minute. But what makes people remember is deciding the structure first: colors as the catalog, a fish-shaped drum that says Hongze, and place-name captions that tell viewers these places are real and worth a visit.
FAQ
In Colors of Hongze, shots like Sanhe Sluice and the lake island were rebuilt from local aerial footage, with the dam's direction and the shoreline following the real site before a consistent grade; the sails on the five-sail boat were checked one by one; and every shot carries a place-name caption at the bottom.
Divide it into chapters by color. The film has six chapters, Crimson Glow, Gilded Gold, Emerald Mist, Indigo Lake, Violet Haze and Crescent White, each with only one or two sights. The opening shows all the colors at once in six equal strips, and the color names and place captions stay in fixed positions throughout.
Sample work on this film began on May 17; after the samples were approved on May 21, full production started, and the film was finalized on June 19, about a month in total, with scenes, pacing and captions revised along the way based on client feedback.
We delivered a 59-second, 1920×1080 landscape promo film and a cover image, released on Hongze Culture & Tourism's official accounts and Kuaishou, with 3M+ views across platforms. Produced by Shenzhen Alchemy Technology Co., Ltd. (Liandan AI Studio).
Approach
During production we sorted the location footage by color and place, then checked each storyboard frame against reference images of the same location. Shots of the Hongze Lake shoreline were generated from real photos and then graded so they match the actual site; symbols like the fish drum and the five-sail boat were checked separately for shape.
The six-strip opening was aligned by column width and rectangular masks so the strips don't overlap as they move. In post, the calligraphic title, color names and landmark captions were handled separately and then timed to the chapter rhythm; the six-color overview at the start and the chapter-by-chapter unfolding that follows clearly mirror each other.
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